Project SM Monotype PotW #3: Paleo

Kev

Part of the journey is the end
is a Community Leader Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Approved by Eien , Acast & Vid
Based off of OU PotW and Gen 6 Mono PotW

Welcome to the third edition of Monotype Player of the Week!


(credits to Seo. for the banner)

During this project, I will be interviewing some of the most influential players in Monotype today whether it be based on their exceptional contribution to the metagame or their outstanding performance in tours. If anyone has suggestions on who should be interviewed next, feel free to PM me your ideas.
This week I have the winner of the first SM Monotype Seasonals, Monotype Moderator and consistently amazing tour player.


Paleo

Can you tell us a bit about your life outside of Smogon?
- I live just outside of Atlanta, Georgia and in about a month I'll be starting my last year of high school. I watch a lot of movies, football, and basketball, and actually play a lot of basketball with neighborhood friends and am somewhat decent. I'll be applying for college soon and plan on studying either astrophysics or aerospace engineering.

What are you most known for?
- being an above average monotype player, monoroom mod, hosting seasonals, being on the council, and managing the should-be mpl champions meteor falls miniors

What made you play Pokemon competitively? What got you into Monotype and made you want to stay?
- I watched bw2 Wi-Fi battles from shofu and pokeaimmd and pokegenned some Mons into my own games to shit on friends from school. Eventually they told me about PS and I've been on ever since. I started playing Monotype when the ladders reset one day and kept playing it because... It was easy I guess? I had relative success with some ballsack steel team and just kept playing.

What is your favorite Pokemon in general and favorite one to use competitively?
- I've always liked empoleon and poliwag/poliwhirl because of these designs, and competitive wise probably keldeo or zard y since you can spam attacks with 0 draw back. Ofc sr is a pain to deal with for zard but I feel both keld and zard are always reliable. It's always nice to see them do 55 to their resists.

What is your favorite type?
- Either steel or dark, they're both diverse with a lot of room to differentiate from the standard builds. They both have really fun hard hitters like magearna, hydreigon, greninja, scizor, and both can have either offensive or balance builds. I don't use dark much in tournaments tho cus it just straight loses to fairy water and magearna lmao, but it's always a fun type to ladder with. Steel isn't as diverse but it's a lot more consistent for me.

How about your favorite playstyle?
- Probably bulky offense, I really like using hard hitters like I mentioned before like zard y, keldeo and magearna, but I also like having bulky pivots so I can play relatively safe until im forced to do something drastic. With straight offense, it can be fun making doubles, keeing momentum, and predicting switches all game long, but I feel as though if you screw up once you're in a horrible spot, so to me bulky offense is more consistent.

What are your thoughts on the current SM Monotype metagame? Are there things you think deserve a suspect, to be banned or unbanned? How does it fair compared to ORAS?
- I don't think I enjoy building and prepping teams for tours as much as I did in ORAS during MPL II because I don't feel like there are many types that can consistently win in this meta. There's always steel, fairy, flying, and poison thatll nearly always pull out wins, but I always find it hard using types just outside the top5 like electric or ground in "serious" matches because those all have some bad matchups against the top5 and all have some type of big flaw. The new mega releases should spice building up for me because psychic and normal should get better. Magearna should get a suspect test in the coming weeks because its so bulky and setsup so easily, and its double dance set decks most teams middle to late game. Marshadow will be quickbanned in the coming days, not much to talk about there.

Many people have been comparing Monotype to children’s games like “rock, paper, scissors” and “tic-tac-toe”. What do you think about that bold claim? Is it a gross exaggeration of the type mechanics of monotype or an accurate description?
- Well yea ofc it's an exaggeration, that's part of the joke, but its an oversimplification. Sure, I don't think you need a lot of skill to find success in monotype, but in most drawn out tours, the good players win, and I think thats evident in the later rounds of the monotype seasonal and its playoffs, and MPL records.

Do you have any advice for people new to Monotype or people who are trying to improve?
- Play alot, eventually you should pick up what each mon will do each turn and what your opponent. Watching good players also helps because there were always and still are some situations where I just don't know what to do, and watching better players play in those situations sort've taught me whether to preserve a mon's hp or fodder another mon there.

What are your thoughts on Monotype OMs? Do you think they deserve a presence in competitive monotype or do they simply belong in occasional room tours?
- I enjoy playing them and I wouldn't mind them in MPL if they get popular enough. Ubers and LC seem somewhat stable, and its cool to see what strategies people come up with, while AAA is really fun to play and build for. Shit like mono MnM or BH should never see the light of day tho. I could see us adding maybe 2 of these metas in MPL and removing the extra oras and bw slots, which I don't think we need.

Are there any up and coming players that have impressed you or that you think will be able to make a mark in the community?
- There were a lot of side server lads that got drafted in mpl. Iirc nobody did horrendously bad so they've got some promise.

What are your overall thoughts on the past MPL season? Any specific reason you decided to not play the highly competitive Bo3 slot despite being one of the best players?
- MPL was a blast as always. Was dissapointed to not make playoffs but it was really our teams fault and was just happy to meet new people and have the opprotunity to manage a team. As for the bo3 slot, when drafting I figured having the best player possible in the slot was the way to go. Maybe I could've drafted myself for bo3 and got a few more players, but buying eien for 28k to play it couldn't have worked out better.

Who do you think are the top 5 SM monotype players right now?
- I'll do you better and give a top 10

Thorn, eien, lycan, clearly, sabella, rnbs, Wanka, lax, p2, leru

You have performed consistently well in tournaments, what advice do you have on prepping for a match?
- For mpl I compile a list of like 5-6 types my opp will probably use and build around cores that'll have a good enough match-up. For seasonal and other small tours if I do any prep I'll search through my opps replays and pick teams that don't have bad match-ups.

Similar to the previous question, any advice on teambuilding?
- Idr who said this before but you should pick a new Mon or idea because there's no use in building otherwise. Always keep in mind the best mons/cores in the metagame like mew, flying's defensive core, chansey/p2, toxapex, latios, etc. Of course you can't cover everything but try and give yourself a shot vs most matchups.
Also please please make sure you have a pokemon faster than charizard..

Who are some of your favorite people that you met on Pokemon Showdown?
- S/o woa conglomerate for being the only ppl I talk to on PS

Finally, can you showcase a team that you think represents your style as a player and provide an explanation on how to use it?
Nihilego @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Power Gem
- Sludge Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Nidoking @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower

Venusaur @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 232 HP / 180 Def / 80 SpD / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Leech Seed
- Synthesis
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Recover
- Haze

Crobat @ Black Sludge
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Def / 216 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Taunt
- Defog
- Roost

Muk-Alola @ Assault Vest
Ability: Poison Touch
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Shadow Sneak
- Gunk Shot

- Some standard poison from months ago. Probably my most used and consistent team in tours. I feel like poison build gives you a great shot to win litrally every matchup bar chansey p2 normal teams, and gives fairy a bit of a run for its money for best type. You can always throw a gengar over nidoking and put SR on nihilego to make the normal matchup better, but steel becomes p hard to beat.

This concludes my interview with Paleo. A huge thanks to him for taking time out of his day and replying all my questions! Feel free to now ask your own questions to our Player of the Week.​
 

Bushtush

Banned deucer.
  1. What is more difficult for you, looking into someones eyes when you are telling someone how you feel, or looking into someones eyes when they are telling you how they feel
  2. Think of the last time you were REALLY angry. WHY were you angry? Do you still feel the same way?
  3. You are on a flight from Honolulu to Chicago non-stop. There is a fire in the back of the plane. You have enough time to make ONE phone call. Who do you call? What do you tell them?
  4. You are at the doctor's office and he has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? What do you do with your remaining days? Would you be afraid?
  5. You can have one of the following two things. Which do you choose? Why? Love and Trust.
  6. You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late even once more, you are fired. Do you take the time to save the dogs life? Why or Why not?
  7. Would you rather be hurt by the one you trust the most or the one you love the most?
  8. If you could make a 30 second speech to the entire world, what would you say?
  9. If you were going to die at midnight, what would you be doing at 11:45pm?
  10. How do you really KNOW anything for sure?
  11. If you had all the money in the world but still had to have some kind of job, what would you choose to do?
  12. When you’re 90 years old, what will matter most to you?
  13. What do you regret most so far in life?
  14. How can you apply the lesson you learned from that regret to your life TODAY?
  15. What would you change if you were told with 100% certainty that God does not exist? Or if you don’t believe in God, that he does exist?
  16. If you lost everything tomorrow, whose arms would you want to run into? Does that person know how much they mean to you?
  17. How important are dank memes in today's society?
  18. Do you fear death? If so, do you have a good reason?
  19. What would you change if you knew you were NEVER going to die?
  20. Your best friend confesses that he/she has feelings for you more than just friendship. He/she is falling in love with you. What do you (or did you) do/say?
  21. Think of the last person who you know that died. You have the chance to give them 1 hour of life back, but you have to give up one year of yours. Do you do it? Why or Why not?
  22. Are you the kind of friend that you would want to have as a friend?
  23. Why does a 26 year old accountant who makes six figures resort to playing Pokémon?
  24. Does love = sex?
  25. Your boss tells your coworker that they have to let them go because of work shortage, and they are the newest employee. You have been there much longer. Your coworker has a family to support and no other means of income. Do you go to your boss and offer to leave the company? Why or Why not?
  26. When was the last time you told someone HONESTLY how you felt regardless of how difficult it was for you to say? Who was it? What did you have to tell the person?
  27. What would be (or what was) harder for you to tell a member of the opposite sex, you love them or that you do not love them back?
  28. What do you think would be the hardest thing for you to give up? Why would it be hard to lose?
  29. Excluding romantic love, when was the last time you told someone you loved them. Who were they to you?
  30. If there was one moment and one time in the last month what would you change and why?
  31. Imagine it is a dark night, you are alone, it is raining outside, you hear someone walking around outside your window. WHO do you wish was there with you?
  32. Would you give a homeless person CPR if they were dying? Why or Why not?
  33. You are holding onto your grandmother's hand and the hand of a newborn that you do not know as they hang over the edge of a cliff. You have to let one go to save the other. Who do you let fall to their death? What was your rationale for making the decision?
  34. Are you old fashioned?
  35. When was the last time you were nice to someone and did NOT expect anything in return for it?
  36. Which would you choose, true love with a guarantee of a broken heart, or never loved at all? Why?
  37. If you could do anything or wish anything, what would it be?
Enjoy :D Paleo
 
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